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Day 1 – 5asideCHESS Battling Suicide Bus Tour

14 August 2021 · by Diane Waldron

Day 1 – 5asideCHESS Battling Suicide Bus Tour

Day 1 of the Battling Suicide Bus South West tour started with some powerful encounters with the people of Watchet in Somerset. Thank you for being brave enough and curious enough to come over to talk and share your stories. From homelessness to lack of purpose and activities for youngsters, miss-spent public money, demonisation of men leading to anger and confusion, social media presenting ‘perfect’ lives which make others feel inadequate and hard done by – all massive issues which are causing a mental health crisis and ultimately leading far too many people to decide to end their lives. As ever, some of these conversations ended with people saying, “but what can you do?” Our answer to that is that we all have the power to do something in our own streets and communities. Connection is the antidote to loneliness. Let’s start there.

Originally published on the 5asideCHESS blog, 14 August 2021. Preserved here as part of The Archive.